Modi and Putin have warmly greeted each other during the summit within the Shanghai Cooperation (SCO) in Chinese Tianjin. On Monday, they sat in Putin's limousine for a 45-minute conversation, which Modi describes as "insightful", reports BBC.
They felt at home, they felt comfortable there, so therefore they continued the conversation, said Putin's spokesperson Dmitrij Peskov.
Prior to his departure to China, Modi spoke on the phone with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyj on Saturday. Zelenskyj described the conversation as "fruitful and important" and said that he repeated Ukraine's openness for a meeting with Putin.
Jab at the USA
Modi has refrained from condemning Russia's war in Ukraine and has attempted to position himself as a mediator.
SCO gathers Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The summit in the large Chinese port city of Tianjin is seen partly as a way to challenge the USA's dominance in global politics.
Several phrases from China's dictator Xi Jinping, who is hosting the meeting, have been interpreted as criticism of the Western world.
Oppose the Cold War mentality, confrontations between different camps and gang behavior, said Xi in his speech.
In particular, the last phrase is interpreted as a jab at the USA, and President Donald Trump's raised trade tariffs against China and other countries.
Putin: The war is the West's fault
Putin, on his part, has taken the opportunity to repeat the claim that the war in Ukraine is not Russia's fault.
This crisis was not triggered by Russia's attack on Ukraine, but was the result of a coup in Ukraine that was supported and provoked by the West, said the Russian president in his speech at the summit on Monday.
The second reason for the crisis is the West's constant attempts to draw Ukraine into NATO.
The claims resemble what Putin has said before, a line that goes out to say that Russia has gone on the attack after feeling threatened by the defense alliance NATO's expansion eastward in Europe.
